Specialties

Bio

Dr. Joseph Cramer returned to Primary Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) in 2012 where his career began in 1981. At Primary, he started the first outreach clinic in an underserved area in the valley. With closure of the clinic due to community concerns, he returned to the hospital, practicing out-patient medicine. A chief part was to evaluate children referred for possible physical and/or sexual abuse.

Attracted to greater autonomy, he left academia and created a private practice of general pediatrics in Murray at Cottonwood Pediatrics were he continued until 2011. There he cared for infants, toddlers, children and adolescents. He and his partner were highly engaged in the resuscitation and care of sick newborns.

In addition to the full time clinical workload, Dr. Cramer had interests outside of direct care of patients. Over the years, he has been President of the Utah Medical Association (UMA), member of the Board of Trustees of Intermountain Healthcare( IHC) and has been engaged in healthcare quality improvement as Medical Director for HealthInsight, a not-for-profit company, participating in hospital, nursing home and physician improvement efforts. A substantial emphasis of his time was on the improvement of care through greater use of technology such as electronic medical records and interconnectivity. With his work with the UMA and his interest in computers, he was drawn to the community effort of electronic communication and administration with Utah Health Information Network and the Utah Digital Health Services Commission. For one year before his homecoming to PCMC, he was the Medical Director for Utah Medicaid.

In his interaction with children and parents, he emphasizes emotional security. This has led to an overwhelming wonderment of children and human relations. As part of this effort he served as the first pediatrician in the Salt Lake Homeless shelter and has participated in healthcare in the developing world. He has presented nationally about “Mindful Nurturing”

Since 2007 Dr. Cramer has written a weekly column in the Deseret News about children, parenting, healthcare and anything else that comes to his mind. He has also written five books for children and parents. He could have done none of this without the incredible support of his wife and the tolerance of his five sons.

Academic Office Locations

Academic Bio

Dr. Joseph Cramer, originally from Arizona, graduated cum laude with an honors designation from Brigham Young University after three years. He completed his medical training at the University of Arizona in Tucson in the same length of time. Wanting to expand his clinical experience, he was an intern at the Maricopa County General Hospital before starting his pediatric residency at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is a board certified pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Most recently he has become certified in medical quality. His academic interests include the use of diet in the supplemental treatment of children, system change and quality improvement. He is also eager to apply principles of attachment and security in the approach to child and parental communication and problem solving. He loves working with and learning from medical students and pediatricians in training.

In the end, everything he is or ever hopes to be he owes solely to Dr. Chris Maloney.